196 SUMMER GARDENS OF KASHMIR 



cypress shape, she on her rose-bush mound. 

 For Moslem garden-craft, like Mughal painting, 

 is full of symbolism, and rich with all the sensuous 

 charm and dreaminess of the old Persian tales ; 

 and the story of Laila and Majnum, the faithful 

 lovers who only saw each other twice on earth, 

 is most frequently memorialised in the garden. 

 Two low-growing fruit trees, such as a lemon 

 and citron, or a lemon and orange tree, planted 

 in the midst of a parterre of flowers, are the 

 lovers happy in Paradise ; the same idea is 

 also illustrated by two cypresses, or the so- 

 called male and female date palms, which are 

 generally planted in pairs. The design of the 

 double flower-beds in which the two symbolic 

 trees were planted can be seen in the brick 

 parterre at Lahore and in those of the Taj. 

 Majnum's sad, earthly symbol is the weeping- 

 willow (baide majnum), whose Laila, the water 

 lily, grows just beyond his reach. Two cypress 

 trees are frequently grown as their emblems, 

 and the prettiest and quaintest emblem of all 

 is Laila on her camel litter, a rose-bush on a 

 little mound. Dark purple violets mean the 

 gloss and perfume of her blue-black hair, saman 

 (jasmine, which also means a foaming stream) 



